My excellent Friend!
. . . I must address myself especially to you, in order to prepare you for the anxieties which you will necessarily encounter so long as you remain favourably disposed toward my great undertaking, as it has now become our mutual care.
So many obstacles have arisen that I consider it all the more important that we hold to our Preliminary Festival on May 22, which, assuming the issue to be for certain a favourable one, will bring with it a more vigorous impulse to our great undertaking.
My invitation, which was presented to you for signature, will have informed you that everything is already in the most flourishing condition. In fact, my appeal has been met far beyond my expectations, for we have to provide for four hundred instead of three hundred musical guests.
In addition to the increased demands upon Bayreuth hospitality, the following difficulty in regard to our further arrangements grows out of this interest. The space in our opera house will need to contain one hundred more singers and proportionately one hundred more hosts. . . . We must see how many acceptances come in from our patrons and friends as the result of our invitation; as only one symphony is to be performed this time, I shall quite understand if these notifications do not prove to be many. Presumably, therefore, the auditorium will prove adequate, in spite of the fact that we are to place four hundred free seats at the disposal of our Bayreuth hosts.
But now comes a bad piece of business, dear friend, in which I must be able to count on your friendly assistance. I shall have to leave entirely to you the appeal to the Bayreuth citizens who are willing to offer hospitality to the musicians and singers for three days, although I naturally place my name entirely at your disposal and pleasure.
I intend to instruct all of my scattered musicians and singers to send in their names and addresses to you personally. . . . We will have four hundred invitation forms printed, to which will be added the address of the respective Bayreuth hosts. These invitation forms will then be sent to the various organisations or (in certain cases) to the individual guests in due time, so that each guest will know who his entertainer is to be when he arrives in Bayreuth. More definite instruction for this you will receive from me in good time.
Finally, I confess to you, my dear friend, that my present residence is becoming more and more a distressing matter to me, particularly as I see how necessary it is that I should not be so far from the centre of Germany.
The interruptions which I regret are often the result of dilatoriness, against which I shall be obliged to take energetic measures. My Berlin friend, the architect Neumann, gives me very little comfort; everything is dragging vexatiously; his plans and drawings for my house have turned out beautifully, but what a time elapses before they are handed over to my Bayreuth friends and agents for execution! This must be done at once. Then—your troubles begin again!
But you do it gladly; I have noticed this, dear friend, with pleasure. So I remain of good courage, and send you greetings from a grateful heart.
Your deeply devoted
Richard Wagner.
Source: The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Caroline V. Kerr (Small, Maynard and Company, 1912), No. 20